IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS

The list of Implementing Partner included in the Single Form must give a comprehensive picture to ECHO on how the action will be implemented. The list of Implementing Partners to include will depend on the level of their involvement in the Action and the budget managed. To be noted the difference between implementing partner and co-beneficiary: as only the latter are ECHO certified partners and do appear in the Data Sheet of the MGA.

All DG ECHO certified partners need to be included in the Single Form. 

Depreciation or rental costs for the use of durable equipment may be charged to the ECHO Action in proportion to its actual use as long as the rules on eligibility in Article 6.2 (C.2) are observed. This possibility applies regardless of who owns the durable equipment as long as it was necessary for use in the ECHO funded Action and the normal financial safeguards were ensured. 

The depreciation/rental costs must be reflected in the accounting system in a consistent and verifiable way.

An important exception to this is if the durable equipment was bought using ECHO Funding. In cases where ECHO has already covered or contributed to the purchase cost of  a piece of durable equipment the related depreciation or rental costs can never be charged to a future ECHO funded Action - to do so would be contrary to normal financial safeguards and would constitute double funding. 

In cases where it is not possible to charge rent/depreciation to an ECHO funded Action it may still possible to charge the maintenance and running costs of that durable equipment to the Action's budget.

The threshold for low value allowance equipment is Euro 15 000 regardless of the Action's budget or the number of the Consortium members (multi-beneficiary grant)

Certified NGO partners can only act as implementing partners if they cooperate with an organisation (for instance an international organisation including UN) which signs with 
the Commission an indirect management delegation or contribution agreement (IMDA or HACA).If the agreement framing the action is a grant agreement (using the model grant agreement), then all certified NGO partners will become co-beneficiaries/co-partners

To a certain extent: look at the standard justifications for exceeding the 60,000 EUR  ceiling in the HIP Technical Annexes for more information.

A consortium is an association of certified partners agreeing to conclude with the Commission a multi-beneficiary grant agreement. Certified partners can decide to work  with IPs (based outside the EU) for the implementation of such grant agreement.

A consortium is an association of certified partners agreeing to conclude with the Commission a multi-partner grant agreement. Certified partners can decide to work with  IPs for the implementation of such grant agreement.

Implementing partners can be EU or not EU-based as long as they directly contribute to  the implementation of the action.

No, as long as the implementing partners directly contribute to the implementation of  the action

The certification is not linked to the possibility to transfer funds to implementing  partners. It is a condition to access EU Humanitarian funding (previously FPA)

Yes, the principle is that it will not be possible to use certified partners as implementing partners: they will have to be associated to the lead certified partners in the grant agreement as co-partners (co-beneficiaries).

UK is not a EU member state anymore. UK-based entities cannot apply to become certified partners. They can still work on DG ECHO’s actions as implementing partners.

Transfer between certified partners and IPs are not limited. Partners need however to  remain responsible for the whole action and to perform core tasks. Transfers of funds  need to be directly related to the implementation of the action

The Humanitarian Aid Regulation indeed requires Partners to be established in the EU.  Furthermore, the ex-ante assessment looks at whether the applicant implements core 
tasks for the implementation of the action and whether it is not acting as a mailbox  (empty shell).

The MGA is, in principle, to be used with NGO partners, except for mixed consortia (NGOs and IOs when NGO is the coordinator (lead beneficiary)). DG ECHO works under indirect management with IO partners and they thus sign a separate agreement (IMDA or HACA).

No, under the IMDA or HACA templates signed by DG ECHO’s IO Partners, the NGO, even if a certified DG ECHO partner, would be an implementing partner of the IO.

Yes, a UN agency can become a co-beneficiary/co-partner under the MGA and they will need to sign an accession form. For UN agencies and other IOs (pillar assessed entities), see art. 10.3 of the MGA.

Yes. Look at the standard justifications for exceeding the 60,000 EUR ceiling in the HIP Technical Annexes for more information.